Chapter 35: The Most Optimal Choice

[Please select a return method.]

[1: 60,900,000 Gold Coins.]

[2: Epic Equipment Set: Shadow Walker.]

[3: Permanent Attribute Reward: Strength +35, Constitution +35.]

[4: Special Skill: Shadow Blink.]

Victor’s gaze moved across the four options one by one.

Sixty million gold coins was undoubtedly an enormous fortune, and Victor would be lying if he said he was not tempted. With that amount of money, he could purchase enormous quantities of equipment, potions, skill books, and other resources, allowing him to fund far more investments in the future.

However, as the sole heir of the Alves family, Victor’s greatest shortage had never been ordinary money. Even without choosing this reward, the resources and wealth he could access already far exceeded what most professionals could accumulate in their entire lives.

What he truly lacked were things that money could not reliably purchase.

Special movement skills such as this were closely guarded inheritances of major families and powerful organizations, and even someone carrying a mountain of gold might never encounter a suitable one for sale.

More importantly, the freshman trial was only two days away. Gold required time and opportunity to be converted into strength, while [Shadow Blink] could increase his chances of survival immediately.

The [Shadow Walker] set was tempting as well, but equipment could eventually be replaced. As for thirty five points of Strength and thirty five points of Constitution, they would provide an enormous immediate increase in combat power, but compared to a rare movement skill with virtually unlimited growth potential, their long term value was clearly inferior.

Victor could only use Inspection once on each reward panel, so after considering the four options, he made his decision.

"Inspect Shadow Blink."

[Shadow Blink]

[Quality: Epic]

[Type: Movement Skill]

[Effect: Consumes a large amount of mana to perform near instantaneous high speed movement within a range of eight yards.]

[Cooldown: 8 seconds.]

[Can continue evolving through Infinite Evolution.]

Victor looked at it for only two seconds before making a decision.

"Choose option four."

[Selection Successful.]

[Congratulations, Host! You have obtained the Epic grade skill: Shadow Blink.]

A tremendous amount of information concerning body movement, muscular exertion, and mana circulation poured directly into Victor’s mind.

It felt as though he had already practiced this skill countless times before. He did not even need to deliberately experiment with it. His body instinctively understood exactly how it should be activated.

Evelyn, who was standing opposite him and had just been about to ask when her weapon would arrive, suddenly saw Victor disappear without the slightest warning.

Her pupils contracted violently.

"What?!"

By the time Evelyn managed to capture Victor’s figure again, he had already appeared eight yards away.

There was no afterimage or prior preparation. Even the process of mana erupting from his body had been so brief that it was almost impossible to perceive.

That speed was even faster than when she had used [Shadow Assault Step] just moments ago, and not merely by a little.

Evelyn stood completely shocked.

"You..."

Victor himself was actually somewhat surprised. The effectiveness of an Epic grade movement skill was indeed even more practical than he had expected, but correspondingly, its mana consumption was equally considerable.

A single activation had consumed nearly forty points of mana. For an ordinary Level 21 professional, there was simply no possibility of using a skill like this too many times consecutively.

Victor, however, was different. His current mana had already exceeded six hundred points, and he also possessed [Mana Plunder]. His maximum mana would only continue increasing in the future, so a drawback that would be extremely serious for other professionals could almost be completely ignored when placed on him.

"Young Master."

Evelyn finally recovered from her shock and narrowed her eyes at him.

"When did you learn a skill like that?"

"Just now."

"..."

Evelyn fell silent, disbelief written across her face.

"Who are you trying to fool?"

Victor did not bother explaining something that could not possibly be explained. He merely said calmly, "Your dagger will arrive tomorrow morning."

"It really is Epic grade?"

"Mm."

The suspicion that had filled Evelyn’s face only moments ago instantly disappeared.

"Then never mind."

Victor: "..."

This woman really was practical!

Just then, another system notification suddenly appeared before him.

[Evelyn Moore’s Loyalty +6.]

By this point, Victor was beginning to understand more and more clearly how his system was truly meant to be used.

So called investment had never meant meaninglessly throwing enormous amounts of resources around at random. It meant finding targets with sufficient potential, placing the resources most suitable for their current stage of growth into their hands, allowing them to become stronger at a much faster rate, while he obtained returns through the system whose value vastly exceeded the original investment.

The entire process was like rolling a snowball.

As long as the snowball successfully began moving at the start, it would only become larger and faster from that point onward.

...

The next morning in the Third Training Ground.

The original twelve people had gathered once again, except this time there were thirteen people on the training ground because Leah was standing at the back of the group as well.

Although she was still not completely familiar with everyone else, from yesterday onward, she had officially become one of Victor’s people.

Noah had likewise arrived early, and the moment Victor saw him, he noticed an obvious change instantly.

The somewhat pale complexion caused by his defective mana circulation had already become considerably healthier. Futhermore, the information above his head had changed as well.

[Level: 14 → 15.]

He had gained an entire level in just one night.

Victor raised an eyebrow slightly.

"You used the Starvein Potion?"

Noah nodded. "I used it last night."

"How does it feel?"

"Very good." Noah subconsciously clenched his fist, unable to conceal the excitement in his eyes. "Before, whenever I continuously circulated mana for more than two hours, my shoulders and chest would start hurting. But now, that feeling is completely gone, and my mana circulation speed has at least doubled."

Victor nodded lightly. This was only the beginning. Now that the defect in Noah’s mana circulation had been completely repaired, only two conditions remained before his true S rank Sword Heart talent could awaken.

The first was raising his proficiency in advanced swordsmanship to a sufficient level, while the second was condensing the embryonic form of Sword Intent during a genuine life and death battle.

The first condition could be achieved through large amounts of training.

The second, however, could not be rushed.

Victor was not about to deliberately throw Noah into an environment where he could die at any moment merely to awaken an S rank genius he had only recently discovered ahead of schedule.

Normal growth was already more than enough.

"Starting today, spend at least four hours every day inside the advanced swordsmanship training room."

"Understood."

"Reach Level 17 within ten days."

Noah paused. Previously, Victor had given him an entire month.

Now, he had suddenly shortened that deadline to ten days.

Noah remained silent for only a second before giving his answer.

"Understood. I’ll do as Young Master instructed."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the training ground, Leah had not been idle either. She was currently absorbing the Tier 2 unattributed mana crystals Victor had prepared for her in advance. One mana crystal after another was continuously drawn toward the Star Core, and the mana contained within them was transformed through Astral Conversion before being absorbed into her body.

However...